A Message from the Kashrut Director, Rabbi J.D. Conway

We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat nevertheless helps us to be much more than what we are.” So writes Adelle Davis, one of the early pioneers in the field of nutrition.

For the Jew, this is true not only in the physical sense but equally, if not more so, in the metaphysical sense. Observe the kashrut laws, exhorts the verse in Parshat Shemini “and you shall be sanctified…for I am the Lord, hamaale etchem - who brought you up from the land of Egypt”. Not just out

but up, for observance of kashrut elevates man, refining and raising him from mere animal to potentially Divine.

The Kashrut Division of the London Beth Din continues to strive to ensure that keeping kosher should be easy and accessible, and that a KLBD license should be a sign of reliability and high standards.

We now have some 120 enterprises in London under KLBD license and some 750 factories certified across the globe. We continue to disseminate kashrut information via the Really Jewish Food Guide, the free distribution of some 75,000 Nosh guides, online access via our website and

Facebook site and instant updates by email and text bulletins. Early in 2010 we hope to launch a new iPhone application for easy access to the kashrut database.

A tremendously exciting development this year has been the decision by Mars to place the KLBD logo on several of their iconic brands and we are

delighted by this acknowledgement that the KLBD logo is nationally recognised as a symbol of kashrut and quality and wholly animal free. The message is that kosher is cool, and as meaningful in the 21st century as it was to earlier generations in vastly different circumstances.

For making all this possible my profound thanks go to everyone in the KLBD Kashrut team; from the shomrim on the frontline and the inspectors in the factories to the indefatigable office staff who man their mobiles and

bleepers 24 hours a day. For this publication in particular I must thank our Senior Food Technologist Rosalind Coten and her team Sue Colman, Michal Eder and Naomi Green, together with the design and production team David Attiach,

Myrna Elliot, Claire Perets and Ilan Grossman.

I am particularly grateful to Dayan Menachem Gelley and his

colleagues of the London Beth Din for their halachic guidance and ongoing support and encouragement at all times.

Rabbi Jeremy Conway
Director, LBD Kashrut Division

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